You are lucky. It has now been 5 days since her promised review. I think it’s time for a nudge.
In that case i think you might need to reconsider the unexpected consequences of this kind of thinking, the sitter has the right of reply. I actually feel it’s incredibly unkind and wrong thinking to treat sitters in this manner, and whether you inform ahead of time or after the sit actually telling them of your ‘process’. After all with this approach a sitter could legitimately reply that this HO waited to write their review just in case they found something wrong over the subsequent 14 days…. I’m not sure it’s a good look. I also note the number of people who agree with you which somewhat surprises me. This thinking comes from a place of suspicion.
What’s not fair about people using the time allotted to write their review? We all have a two week window to post a review. Not posting it after 3 days does not mean they don’t plan to write a review. People should be able to manage their time as they see fit. I wouldn’t be at all concerned until at least day 10. In my experience of over 70 sits most reviews have been posted at around 7-10 days after the sit. I just did one that posted it three days after and I was really surprised that she got the review in so quickly since that’s unusual in my experience. Often people do have extra stuff to do after a trip. Personally, when I take off work that means I have extra work when I get back. Add in jet lag if they went somewhere far, as well as wanting to take the time to think about and write a thoughtful review and not feel rushed to do so.
As a sitter, I have never sent someone a ‘nudge’ to write a review.
I take the same “wait and see” approach whether I am a sitter or HO. I have had 20 sitters at my house and done 25 sits. Experience has taught me to wait. The other party doesn’t know why I am waiting. I can see why some sitters would be uncomfortable, but no sitter or HO is entitled to an immediirritate me. Whatever my reasons for waiting, harassing me for a review would irritate me.
I understand the reasoning behind your wait-and-see approach @Lassie but I find the word ‘harassing’ too strong. I asked Google the difference between pestering and harassing and got the following:
pestering refers to minor, annoying, or persistent interruptions usually meant to get a request fulfilled. Harassing, however, is much more aggressive and severe, involving systematic intimidation, threats, or harmful behavior that causes genuine fear or emotional distress and carries legal consequences. [1, 2, 3]
Perhaps pestering is a more appropriate choice. But as I recall you are a lawyer and that may have affected your word choice.
Perhaps it is inappropriate to police my choice of words.
Perhaps. But ‘police’ I find another strong choice. Again, law is not my area of expertise.
Agree. I don’t know why some posters feel entitled to a fast review. Sure, someone can write a review in a few minutes, but that does not mean that they should do this. As a sitter, I don’t get offended if someone waits to write a review so I have a hard time understanding those who do take it as an affront.
I’ll now be adding another requirement to my profile so that HOs know my prompt review expectations. Transparency is everything I find.
Write a review of your sit FOR the HO Make it simple and factual
Send it to the HO
I’m afraid I don’t get your point.
I don’t think so. On the contrary, what comes from a place of suspicion is anticipating that just because someone hasn’t written a review right away, they’re going to miss the deadline.
The value of the review is to assess how the experience has been for both parties not to give proof of trust. Sitters are able to give a review the moment the sit ends, even before that. Hosts need more time. During the sit, the sitter knows how the house is, how the pets behave, how the hosts are communicating, how hospitable they are and how accurate the listing was. During that time, hosts are getting some updates with a few pictures or videos that, for all they know, could have been taken in the first few minutes, especially with indoor pets. They trust the sit is going well but they can’t know and you want them to extend that trust and write a review before they can even relax or even check everything is Ok because you’re too impatient to wait for them to take the time that has been established by THS?
You still don’t get why people agree with that?
I am a sitter, I have written and received 90% of the reviews the day after the sit ends, that’s the day the review window is opened. I am used to that but is something I don’t expect, much less feel entitled to.
I think telling people how to handle their own time and trying to shorten the period established for everyone is invasive and selfish.
What for?
What benefit do you get from it?
I’m afraid you can’t. For some reason which THS has never bothered to share, communication is a category which applies only for hosts. You can, of course, mention that in your review and I am sure it will help both the sitter and prospective hosts make better choices.
When a host gets home and finds everything in order, and happy pets, the sit is effectively complete for them. They are hopefully feeling happy, and maybe relieved, that everything went well. For sitters (at least for me as a sitter) the sit is not complete till I have received a (hopefully great) review. This is a major difference between sitters & HOs imho. As sitters we always strive to do our absolute best for the host -in every way- and the very least than can be expected after a successful sit is a prompt review. However busy an HO is on their return I feel it is a sign of courtesy towards the sitter to prioritise writing them a review before getting on with their lives. I don’t mean this in a pressurising way- It would be great if the wish to honour a great sitter came naturally and spontaneously without the need to send reminders. For some it does- our last host was very prompt and very appreciative. It really does feel different- getting a quick review or waiting days and days wondering if something unknown went wrong or if indeed we will be getting a review at all.
Therefore we always request a review the day after the sit, usually in a friendly WhatsApp. I’m with @BonnyinBrighton on this and if necessary we’ll send reminders (reluctantly as it always makes us feel uncomfortable) but reviews are the currency of THS in this unpaid exchange. They are very important, especially for sitters.
But why do you expect a fast review? What is the rush? There is no reason that a HO should prioritize giving me a review over the many other tasks they are dealing with on a return from vacation. For all I know, they could have a major family emergency that is all-consuming
I can feel morally justified in expecting a review, but I see no reason to expect a fast one.
YES! Thank you for this validation.
UPDATE - after I had crafted the perfect nudge, and was being anxious about just when to send it, this morning I finally got her review before having to nudge for the third time. It was pretty basic, not at all detailed, but at least I got the validation I wanted. She just wasn’t the type that writes descriptively. I do think that if she had written it sooner, the better parts of my service would have been closer in her memory. I’m going to take the advice of some here and leave a note encouraging people to leave me a review right after because that is what I always do. It really is very important to sitters. Thank you so much to @Lokstar and @BonnyinBrighton for commissurating and recognizing how important this is.
Thanks for the update. I always appreciate when posters come back with feedback and there’s a closure to the OP story.
I do understand the frustration and impatience that you were feeling and I completely agree with @Lokstar that
That has been the case in the vast majority of my sits and, again, as @Lokstar said, that’s when I feel I can put that sit behind me.
That said, we’re all different and we come with a full bag of previous experiences that sometimes dictate a cautious behaviour. If a host has had a previous where they gave a glowing review only to find out later that something went wrong, it’s just natural that they want to check that everything is in good order. They don’t even need a personal experience, there have been plenty of threads about this situation advising HOs to check everything is OK before posting a review.
Apart from a sitter waiting for a review, there are other demands going on in a host’s life, they have to prioritize.
It’s possible like you say that
And it’s certainly a good strategy to encourage them to write a prompt review when the sit ends but there are at least two other possible explanations for their basic review:
1- She doesn’t write detailed reviews. You can check the previous reviews if you’re not their first sitter.
2- She doesn’t feel like writing a detailed one for you for some reason, perhaps she feels like @Lassie and doesn’t appreciate getting three, perhaps 4 reminders in 8 days. Just a thought.
Write your own review from the HO perspective
Short Sweet Factual
Send it to them
So they can post the review you wrote
You are making it convenient for the HO
!!! ??? !!!
Amazing!